HC quashes notice issued to Nishank on land scam

In a major reprieve to former Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank, the Uttarakhand High Court quashed a notice issued to him by the Tripathi Commission in connection with an alleged land scam during his tenure.

Justice Alok Singh of the high court based in Nainital quashed the notice issued in connection with the Citurgia land scam after Nishank challenged its justification claiming that the high court had already given him a clean chit in the case, the petitioner’s counsel Rakesh Thapaliayal said.

In his petition, Nishank who was recently elected as an MP from Haridwar, had contended that the Commission had no authority to issue him a notice in a case already disposed of by the high court. After going through the details of the case, Justice Singh ordered quashing of the notice. The single bench also quashed a state government notification authorising the commission to probe alleged irregularities in allocation of hydel projects during Nishank’s tenure as chief minister.

The petitioner had challenged the notification contending that the matter had already been disposed of by the high court and was pending before the Supreme Court which meant that it was beyond the powers of the commission to probe a matter already pending before the apex court, Thapaliyal said.

Terming the high court order as a vindication of his stand, Nishank accused the state government of conspiring to tarnish his image. Talking to reporters here, the Haridwar MP said the high court order giving him a clean chit in the Citurjia land scam and alleged irregularities in allocation of hydel projects had blown the lid off a vilification campaign against him.

“The high court order has exposed the conspiracy against me to tarnish my image. 17-18 PILs have been filed against me from the high court to the Supreme Court. After all, whose money is going into this sponsored campaign? It should be investigated by the CBI. I will urge the Centre to order a CBI probe into this vilifications campaign against me,” he said.